This I Believe

I believe that being able to laugh at yourself is the key to a happy, successful life. Laughing, a vital part of my daily activities is something that I simply cannot live without. Laughter brings happiness to my life, and also provides as a great toner for my abs! When I am sad or mad, laughter exits my life quietly and rests in the back of my mind. When I am extremely happy or excited about something to come, I laugh. I am the girl who can be in the middle of a crowd and think of something that makes me smile, and will burst into laughter without thinking. Cracking jokes or playing jokes on my friends and family always keeps me laughing. When I tell a story and there is a funny part in it, I usually will take an additional ten minutes to tell the story for the long interrupted eruption of laughter. I'm the type of girl who will laugh about something that happened yesterday and still finds it just as funny.

A childhood memory coming to mind is when my father would pick me up and lock me in his arms. I would have to use all my tiny muscles to try and break out of his “trap.” Every time I would try to break free I could not help but laugh so hard that I would have to restart using my strength all over again.

Another recent event that makes me realize how important laughing is was on my ride home from my first year at college for thanksgiving break; my brother's car broke down. The reason I started laughing was because by the time we finally got back on the road with seven hours left to drive, my brother asked me to drive. I love to drive, but his car is a standard in which I have had no experience whatsoever of driving. I eventually got home at seven in the morning.

Laughter is contagious. Whenever I see my family or friends laughing I immediately cannot control myself and will laugh ten times harder.

When my mood starts to go south, I reflect on what is bothering me and come to realize there are much worse things that could be happening in my life. When someone I really care about or even people I have just met are unhappy, I will try my hardest to make them happy and crack a smile. All my family and friends know that for me to make people laugh is a very important thing for me because I hate seeing people upset. Looking on the bright side of life is the way for me to go and laughing is the only type of high I will ever experience.

Liz LaPerch

Elizabeth LaPerch